Graham Love, who has run the company for the last four years, is departing on 30 November. His replacement, Leo Quinn, is the former chief executive of bank-note maker DeLaRue.

Yesterday an official report said that QinetiQ must bear some of the blame for the mistakes that led to the crash of an ageing Nimrod aeroplane in Afghanistan in 2006. QinetiQ insisted today, though, that the two events were not linked.

"We have been looking at succession planning for over a year," a company spokesman said. "You would be mistaken to directly link the two events."

Yesterday's report, written by Charles Haddon-Cave QC, said BAE Systems, manufacturer of the Nimrod, bore "substantial responsibility" for the tragedy. The plane caught fire over Helmand province after being refuelled in mid-air, and it is thought that leaking fuel came into contact with a hot air pipe. The inquiry found evidence that design flaws played "a crucial part" in the crash, and accused BAE of giving a "misleading impression" about the hot air piping system to the Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ.

Haddon-Cave also said that QinetiQ had failed to properly fulfil its duties as an independent advisor, and had not checked BAE's conclusions.

In response, QinetiQ said it "expresses its sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives", adding it will seek to learn from the report.

"He will receive the payments he is contractually entitled to," the QinetiQ spokesman said, adding that this will be disclosed in the company's next annual report.

Chief executives of FTSE 250-listed companies, such as QinetiQ, are often entitled to 12 months' salary. Last year's annual report shows that Love received a basic salary of £391,667, plus £96,342 in car and healthcare payments and in lieu of a pension. However, he, and other members of the company's board, did not hit their bonus targets.

Love is not cutting all ties with QinetiQ. He has agreed to play an advisory role on its Defence Training Rationalisation (DTR) project, a £12bn programme to supply technical training in subjects including engineering and electronics.

The City has welcomed the change at the top of QinetiQ, pushing its shares almost 6.5% higher this morning to 152p.

Analysts at Investec said that new boss Quinn was a "highly regarded" strategic thinker with a track record of turning companies around.